Finally
by winteraction
Summary: Tenten decided to go that night, because she knew he wouldn’t be there. NejiTen
1. Chapter 1

Tenten decided to go that night, because she knew he wouldn't be there.

He was gone. He had followed the path to Orochimaru years ago, allured, hungry for the power that he so desperately wanted- the power that the Sannin said he could give him. But while Uchiha Sasuke had returned, Hyuuga Neji had not been retrieved. He couldn't be retrieved, Tenten knew. She knew him better than anyone- she knew what he could do; she knew what he could achieve. He was a genius. And yet, he had flaws. Neji had always had a dangerous desire to prove himself, to rise above: ever since they were genin. Just being a prodigy, just being the best- it wasn't enough. Neji needed to be invincible.

Tenten wasn't bitter as she remembered this. She understood. But she was hollow. Empty. And scared. She was scared of him. Not Orochimaru- Tenten didn't fear Orochimaru, she just hated him. Despised him. No, she was scared of Neji. When Sasuke had come back to Konoha, he was almost impossibly strong. He was damaged and broken, but he was so _advanced. _And Neji-- Neji had always been stronger than Sasuke. She was scared that Neji would become too strong. She was scared that the levels of strength and power Orochimaru could force him to would destroy him. Neji was always at the top, even in their genin days: but they weren't genin anymore.

Now they were all elite: jounin, ANBU. Tenten could remember when they were all struggling to become chuunin- they were young and had a lot to learn. Only Shikamaru had become a chuunin the first time around. The rest of the rookies had become chuunin during the following year. The year after that Neji became a jounin at 15. That was the year he left.

Now, 8 years after the first chuunin exam, the rest of them were all brilliant jounin. Exceptional shinobi. They often went on missions together, and they were almost always successful. But they could never bring Neji back.

On 'Neji-Retrieval' missions, there was none of the drama that had accompanied the attempts to recover Sasuke. There were no long battles and Neji never tried to kill any of the other rookies. But the missions were never successful. Never even close. They would never attack Neji if they came upon him.

Tenten remembered the first time she had seen him since he left- it was two years ago. Their mission squad- consisting of Ino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Hinata, Naruto, and herself- had been trailing him for days. Tenten wasn't surprised at the shinobi that made up the squad. The Lady Hokage had assigned them to the mission not only because they were undoubtedly the most capable, but also because Neji was their friend. So they were all even more determined to find him, pushing their limits as they searched.

And when they did finally see him, they were silent. They couldn't make themselves do anything. There were no weapons drawn. They just stood in a clearing in the forest: they on one side, Neji on the other. Tenten could only look at him. He was already even more damaged than Sasuke had been. He looked like he hadn't slept for days. And he was pale, almost as pale as those Hyuuga eyes which had haunted Tenten's dreams for years. But he was stronger. They could feel his chakra radiating with force. No one said anything for a long time.

Kiba, the squad leader for this mission, looked at Neji with calculating eyes for a long while. Then his breath hitched a bit, and he slowly opened his mouth.

"Come back to us." He had spoken in no more than a whisper, but the sound carried, and Neji undoubtedly heard. Neji blinked slowly. Everyone in the clearing knew that they were not there as shinobi, for that moment, searching for one of Konoha's best. They were there as friends. They were there to pull their friend out of a shadow that would destroy him.

"Brother…" Hinata spoke even more softly than Kiba had, but each ninja's trained ears heard it perfectly. Neji's gaze had shifted from Kiba to Hinata, catching the unspoken pleading in her eyes even without his Byakugan activated. The pleading that was now almost imperceptibly evident on the whole squad's faces. Neji looked slowly from person to person, apologizing with his eyes, but not regretting. Hyuuga Neji regretted nothing. As he looked from Ino to Naruto, he was only imagining other outcomes, other ways things could have been. And as his eyes drifted from Naruto to Shikamaru, maybe he wished for other paths he could have taken. But he did not regret, because he knew that what was done, was done. His gaze stopped at Tenten.

"Neji." She had said his name in a way that only he could hear- with her eyes. He had stared at her. And she hadn't known what to do. She hadn't looked away. Everyone was quiet as she and Neji had looked at each other. She didn't cry as she wanted to, but she drew in a long, shaky breath, never taking her gaze from Neji. He heard it. He showed no response, but they all knew he'd heard that breath. And she had slowly, slowly closed her eyes. She couldn't keep looking at him- it might have destroyed her. She opened her eyes again, and he was still looking. And then he gradually took his glance away, and looked at the rest of the squad one more time. But what was done, was done. Neji performed a single hand sign- and vanished.

The squad stayed quiet. Nobody moved a millimeter. Eventually, Kiba had quietly said, "Let's go home." And they had. They had returned to Konoha, and gone to see Tsunade to give their mission report. She didn't need one- she understood everything the minute they returned without him. So she sent them all home. They walked in silence until they reached the point where they all had to go their separate ways. Each ninja had looked at the ground, and then at Tenten. Tenten saw them all looking at her, and she sighed.

"It's okay," she had whispered. They had all nodded and gone off. Tenten knew why they had waited. Each person missed Neji for a reason, but they were worried about Tenten. Because Tenten had loved him.

Oh, had she loved him. And he'd felt the same. They were never public or showy in their relationship- they weren't like that. But she had loved Neji like the moon. So she had understood when he left. And she had hoped.


	2. Chapter 2

_Oh, had she loved him. And he felt the same. They were never public or showy in their relationship- they weren't like that. But she had loved Neji like the moon. So she had understood when he left. And she had hoped. _

She used to stay up for hours at night, staring out her window: hoping beyond hope that every shadow that moved and every whisper of the wind was him. _A fool's hope_, she thought now, as she locked her front door and began walking. Tonight, she was going, because she knew that he wouldn't be there.

She hadn't slept for more than a few hours each night that first year after he left. People had noticed.

"Tenten, my flower," Gai-sensei had said gently, "...you are waiting for something that you cannot replace. And I hate to watch you breaking."

"I'm fine, Sensei," she'd snapped. Gai-sensei had only smiled.

"You will be," he'd said. A pause from Tenten, and then-

"Yes. I know." She was quiet, but he had heard. Satisfied, he had left. And she had understood. Neji was destroying her. She had to stop waiting for the past. She had to forget.

So she'd done whatever she could over the years to repair herself. She'd drawn her curtains at night. She spent more time with the other shinobi. And over the years, she had grown numb. Not in the sense that she shut out the whole world, but in the way that she blocked certain emotions from becoming too strong or too apparent. Everything she needed to give away: love, sensitivity, security- they were all muffled. They weren't completely hidden away; Tenten was still the same person. She was just missing the element that let her be herself.

As the months went by, the suppressed emotions needed an outlet. Tenten knew this. Shinobi are constantly aware of their emotions. And because she couldn't let them out, she had to translate one emotion into another. Eventually, they became fear. Dread.

Tenten was laughing now, as she continued on to her destination. _I have been dreading something for years that is never going to come. No more. Tonight, I am free. _

But in those days, it had been awful. Dread had permeated her view on life. And everything- _everything_- had reminded her of _him. _She stopped going to their training grounds the year after he left. She stopped thinking about all the times they had tested themselves against each other, all the times he had spun craters into the ground. All the times she had helped him train to exhaustion; train until he fell, unconscious, to the ground; train just to get his mind off of the ways of his clan. She had found new places to train, new targets to hit.

She had been scared that she would see him. She was scared that the minute she set foot on the old training grounds, he would reappear and she would shatter. She was scared he would be holding power beyond what his body could handle. She was scared of him. And though the fear had decreased over the years, the emotions converted into other things, a little of the fear had remained. As had the hope.

_But tonight was different_, she thought now. Tonight, Tenten stopped hoping for Neji to return to her. Tonight, Tenten was going to the training grounds for the first time in years. Tonight, Tenten was going to hit all of her old targets with her eyes closed. Tonight Tenten was free.


	3. Chapter 3

She grinned as she stopped in the middle of the familiar clearing. She closed her eyes, took out senbon, and casually flicked them into where she instinctively knew the old targets and dummies remained. She opened her eyes. As expected- a senbon dead center of every bull's-eye. She walked to the targets and began pulling senbon out of them, one by one. She had collected about half of them, when—

"You've gotten better."

She froze; her arm stopped mid-stretch from reaching to the next senbon. She knew that voice. Impossible. It was a little older, a little more tired, but it was definitely the same. That voice that she heard in her head. That voice she'd convinced herself she never wanted to hear again.

"Impossible," she whispered without moving. "You are not here."

She felt, rather than heard him land on the ground behind her.

"I'm not?" said Neji. She could almost hear the smirk in his tone of voice. And she snapped. All the fear and dread and every other feeling inside of her became a white-hot anger. She dropped all the senbon and whipped around.

"You—'' she seethed. He had an arrogant grin on his face; his hair was longer, he was taller, and he was formidable. He was beautiful, and she hated it. The air around them was pulsing with his chakra. She didn't even want to know what Orochimaru had done do get Neji to such high levels.

Neji was immediately aware of how angry Tenten was, and the uncharacteristic grin on his face actually widened a fraction. "What, you aren't happy to see me? It seemed like everyone missed me pretty badly last time I saw you. I've never seen Kiba more sentimental. And now, here I am. A million times better than before."

She said nothing. Tenten was literally shaking with fury. She couldn't raise her voice above a whisper. "I should kill you."

Neji laughed out loud.

Her eyes narrowed. "I should kill you here and now. You are a missing-nin. You are in alliance with Orochimaru." Her voice got louder.

"You left Konoha. You left your friends. You left, Hyuuga." Her voice rose until she was actually shouting.

"I should KILL you for deserting us!" Everything she had suppressed, everything under the surface, was erupting now.

"You threw everything away!" She was screaming, and she didn't care who heard.

"Leave! You are the worst kind of person. Your family has stopped hoping, you friends have given up on you, and your village hates you because you are a TRAITOR!!" The last word rang through the clearing. Neji didn't even flinch.

He said nothing for a while, just looked at her, contemplating her words. Then he smirked in that way that he used to, because he could see right through her. "So then, if all of that is true, why do you still love me, Tenten? Why are you still waiti-"

Neji's head whipped to the side due to the sheer force of Tenten's slap. The sound echoed throughout the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

"_Bastard._" She spat, her palm still tingling with the impact. "How dare you. How dare you come back here? How _dare_ you come back here and say that I love you?"

Neji quickly recovered from her blow. In all those years of training, Tenten had never hit him once. Never laid a single scratch on him. She had tired him out trying many times, but none of her weapons had ever connected. And now, here they were. And for some reason, this hurt him much more than any weapon ever had. Neji lightly touched his cheek where she had slapped him.

He turned his face back to her, all business now. "I don't need my Byakugan to know exactly how you feel, Tenten. You can't lie to me."

He knew that after saying that, Tenten would indignantly open her mouth and say that she wasn't lying- that it was the cold truth. She did not disappoint.

"You're out of practice, Hyuuga. That was then, and this is now. How dare you return here and say that I still-" She was going to continue, but Neji cut her off.

"Don't give me that, Tenten. Maybe you're good at manipulating your emotions with other people, but it's never worked on me. Here- let's do it your way, since I know how much you love to do things properly." He closed his eyes and activated his Byakugan. And he saw how her eyes widened; her shock magnified a hundred times to his omniscient eyes.

"I'm not going to attack you, Tenten." A suppressed stream of her relief became visible to his eyes. "You said I'm out of practice with your emotions? Then I'll tell you in a way you can't argue with." He saw her anger flare around her like a flame, but he continued.

"The Byakugan is absolute, Tenten. You know this. You have never been able to get around it."

"Bastard-'' she gasped. Yet again, he cut her off.

"You know everything it shows me is the truth. You can hide nothing from my eyes." The flame of her fury grew, this time with a bit of dismay as well- all plainly visible to Neji's eyes.

"You keep saying, 'How can I love you?' You even hit me to prove it." For a second, some guilt joined her inferno of emotions, but she instantly overpowered it with a flood of resentment. He continued.

"But even though you're doing everything you can to convince both you and me of this- your chakra, your body language: everything that you can't control, everything that really shows how you feel, is screaming, 'How can I not?'"

He anticipated her hand before the thought of hitting him even crossed Tenten's mind. So this time, he was ready. He caught her wrist an inch from his face, and gripped it tightly. Not enough to be painful, but just enough so that she couldn't pull it away. But this was Tenten- she immediately attempted to slap him with her other hand. The Byakugan saw it as if it moved in slow motion. He reacted perfectly.

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_Hey, just wanted to say thanks for all the great reviews! The next chapter, most likely, will be the last, so stay tuned for the finale!! _


	5. Chapter 5

Neji now had a tight hold on both of Tenten's wrists- she wasn't going anywhere. However, since it was Tenten, that didn't mean she didn't fight back. She struggled wildly.

"Don't touch me! How dare you- I hate you-" Miraculously, she managed to pull one of her hands free, and took a swipe at Neji again: only to have him catch her wrist once more. "No, Tenten. No more. Enough."

Angry tears filled Tenten's eyes, and she furiously blinked them away. She was getting tired, and when she saw that Neji's iron grip on her wasn't going to relax, she gradually stopped struggling. A shinobi knows her limits.

She stood up straight, his fingers still enclosed around her wrists. They stared at each other for a length.

Neji finally broke the silence.

"I killed him. I killed Orochimaru." His Byakugan saw her disbelief rekindle her flame of emotions.

"Liar." She hadn't believed in Neji for so long. For eight years.

"I killed him, Tenten." He deactivated his Byakugan.

"Prove it," she breathed. He was lying. There was only one way he could-

He let go of one of her hands, and pulled something out of one of his packs. A hitai-ate. _Orochimaru's _hitai-ate. The symbol engraved into the cool metal confirmed it.

A ninja's most important possession was his headband. It belonged only to him. There were only two times in a ninja's life that anyone other than he handled his hitai-ate: the first was the day it was given to him upon graduation from the academy- and the second was rare. The second was if the shinobi was killed, and his defeater took it as a token of victory.

Neji slowly slipped the Sannin's headband into Tenten's hand, but she dropped it almost immediately. She'd seen enough evidence. She carefully removed her arms from Neji's grasp and took a step back. She couldn't believe she was forgiving him, forgetting what he'd done. But she was.

"How?" she whispered. "He was invincible..."

Neji looked away. "There's no such thing as invincible, Tenten."

She only looked at him, but he could see how the moonlight was shining in her eyes now. Just like it used to. "I am…sorry," he whispered.

Still, she only looked at him. Walked a little closer to him. Put one finger slowly on his cheek, so softly that he could barely feel it. "I know, Neji. I feel how cold you are."

He unconsciously began to reach for her, before realizing what he was doing. He slowly pulled his hand back to his side, but clenched it into a fist.

"They…aren't going to take me back. I know they won't. They won't let me in, Tenten," he whispered.

Only then did she smile. Softly. "You've been away for a long time, Hyuuga Neji. Have you forgotten what Konoha is like?" She moved her finger across his forehead. Across his curse seal.

"No," he said softly, and this time he let himself reach for her.

And he was back.

And she was free.

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fin

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_Sorry it was so short, but I couldn't develop it any further without totally deviating from my original idea!! _

_Anyway, thanks for reading, and thanks for all the awesome reviews!! Bye! _

_violetrosie_


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